Skipper Day 5/17

[ctaylor at att.net]

Hi all -

In the yard in Moodus today - 
Peck's Skipper - 2
Tawny-edged Skipper - 3+

Paid a midday visit to Wapowog WMA in East Hampton - good stuff!
COBWEB SKIPPER - 1 (details below)
Hobomok Skipper (Super-fresh) - 1
Juvenal's Duskywing - lots, nectaring at Russian Olive, patrolling the dirt road, etc.
Wild Indigo Duskywing - fresh, active 5+(?)
possible (?) Columbine Duskywing - smaller and darker than most of the other duskys there.  Couldn't catch it or photograph it. 
American Copper - lots
Eastern Tailed-blue - 3
American Lady - 3
Tiger Swallowtail - 2
Spicebush Swallowtail - 1

To get to Wapowog, from the intersection of Rt 151 and Rt 196 in the Leesville Section of East Hampton, go about 1/4 mile N on 196, and turn right on Wapowog Road.  Follow until the pavement ends, and park in the little parking lot on the right (Wapowog WMA sign is there).  Walk the dirt road past the barway, heading south.  About 200 yards down the road, there is a weedy field on your right, just before the road goes into the woode and downhill to the Salmon River.  The Cobweb Skipper was in the weedy field, sometimes nectaring at the Russian Olive "bush", more often patrolling the field between the bush and the dirt road. It was fairly cooperative.

The singing birds in the background were great, too - Prairie, Blue-winged, B&W, and Yellow Warblers, Com. Yellowthroat, Gnatcatcher, Sc.Tanager, Towhee, R-B Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Ovenbird, and Wood Thrush, plus a little mid-air interaction between a Red-shouldered Hawk and an adult Bald Eagle!  Way cool....

Clay Taylor
Moodus, CT
ctaylor at att.net

PS - got my lifer Hessel's Hairstreak in NJ yesterday (Sunday, 5/16).  Easy directions to the spot, if you are interested.  CT